Ignition system control is an important part of modern ignition coil devices and systems, such as may be used in automobiles and other vehicles that include an internal combustion engine. Without proper ignition system control, spark plugs may spark at improper times resulting in pre-ignition (which can also be referred to as engine knocking). Repeated occurrences of pre-ignition or engine knocking can cause engine parts to be damaged or destroyed.
Different approaches have been used to suppress the voltages spike, such as “turn-on” voltage spikes of an ignition insulated-gate bipolar transistor (IGBT) that can cause either undesired sparking. For instance, in some current implementations, a high-voltage (HV) diode can be used to suppress such voltages spikes. However, including such a HV diode adds undesirable extra cost (e.g., cost of manufacture) to the associated ignition control circuit.
In other implementations, an extra control circuitry can be added to suppress such voltage spikes. However, such control circuitry may be undesirable in many implementations.